By Julia Harte

(Reuters) – Since Texas enacted the strictest anti-abortion law in the country a month ago, the four Whole Woman’s Health abortion clinics across the state have seen patient visits plummet, some staff quit and recruitment efforts falter.

The new law, which bans abortions after about six weeks and empowers private citizens to enforce it https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-abortion-ban-opens-up-wild-west-enforcement-critics-say-2021-09-02, has the clinics “teeter-tottering between financial risk, legal risk and staffing risk,” said Marva Sadler, the facilities’ director of clinical services.

Abortion rights advocates claim that the law has had a rapid and widespread impact on abortion since Sept. 1, when it was first implemented. This is despite the fact that it is currently being debated in courts. Friday’s hearing is scheduled.

Sadler stated that abortion clinics face difficulties in surviving: 70% less patients are able to get an abortion at Whole Woman’s Health Clinics. Other options are available to women, such as traveling outside of the state or ordering abortion-inducing drugs via mail.

If Texas’ law is not upheld, abortion rights advocates say Texas could be used as a model for Republican-led states. They consider it a major blow to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 decision that established the right to abortion access, which will itself be tested https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-courts-rightward-lurch-put-roe-v-wade-brink-2021-09-03 by a Mississippi case the court will hear in December.

“Lawmakers from across the country were watching the Texas bill very closely… and when the Supreme Court allowed https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/texas-six-week-abortion-ban-takes-effect-2021-09-01 this unconstitutional ban to go into effect, they said, ‘now’s our chance,'” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and policy organization.

Texas’ “heartbeat law” bans abortion if cardiac activity in an embryo is detected. This happens usually within six weeks. Experts say that this is before women even know they’re pregnant. It also means that 85% to 90% percent of abortions in Texas are performed before the woman knows.

It does not make any exceptions for incest or rape cases. Citizens can enforce this ban and receive at least $10,000 for successfully suing anyone who assisted in an abortion.

The law has led to a surge in the number of visits to Texas’ “crisis-pregnancy centers”, Christian-based clinics that advise women not having abortions.

Threesa Sdler, the executive director at Raffa, stated that the Greenville clinic had seen a 166% jump in ultrasounds over the previous year.

She said that two clients who had their scans reveal a fetal beat were those she believes might have been able to terminate their pregnancies if it was still an option.

She said, “Aside from helping Texas reduce abortion, I don’t know if the law will also push more women (crisis pregnancy centers), but it’s great that this is what’s happening.”

The U.S. Justice Department is asking a federal Austin judge to temporarily block the law until it’s constitutionally challenged. Roe v. Wade states that no state can ban abortions before the foetus becomes viable outside of the womb. Doctors generally consider this to be between 24 and 28 weeks.

Even if the law is eventually repealed, abortion rights activists worry that it will cause long-lasting damage.

Nikki Madsen is the executive director for Abortion Network. The national organization includes seven Texas independent abortion clinics.

Madsen reported that 23 out of 42 Texas-based surgical abortion centers closed in 2013, after Texas passed a law requiring doctors from clinics to receive admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles. Even though the law was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016, there remain only 19 Texas clinics that offer surgical abortions.

ALTERNATE ABORTION ROUTES

Hundreds of women now are seeking abortions outside Texas, lengthening wait times in nearby states such as Oklahoma and Louisiana, according to evidence the Justice Department cited in its lawsuit.

A Planned Parenthood physician in Oklahoma said that Texas patients have traveled far to seek treatment since Sept. 1. A woman traveled six hours one-way alone because she was concerned about her companions getting in trouble.

Some others are buying abortion-inducing medication via mail.

KT (NYSE.) Volkova was a student from central Texas. She discovered she was pregnant days before the law became effective.

There were no available appointments near Volkova for surgical abortions before September 1, and Volkova had been nearly six weeks pregnant. Volkova is a volunteer with an organization that offers financial assistance for abortion seekers. She decided not to seek funds out of state and chose to receive the abortion-inducing medication by mail.

Volkova stated that she would prefer to receive it at a clinic with staff, however, the whole process was done in her apartment.

Texas is set to tighten access to anti-abortion medication.

The state law that took effect Dec. 2, will reduce the time frame for medical abortions to just seven weeks from conception. The law makes it a crime to mail abortion-inducing drugs to women.